ACCENTS

I have often referred to Florida as “the only northern state in the south,” since the native-born population here hovers around 35 percent.

As a result, one is more likely to hear a Minnesota, New York or Indiana accent in Florida than a southern accent. As for yours truly, I plead guilty to having been born near Miami, (and that’s just about as far south in this country as you’re likely to get). However, given my distinct drawl, I have been accused of being from Texas, or Mississippi or Alabama or Georgia. And to be fair, I think I inherited my accent from my parents; who were born and raised in South Georgia.

During the course of my life, I have lived in several other states including, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Texas, Alabama and Mississippi. And as you might imagine, my particular accent only seemed unique and perhaps a bit remarkable in the first state on the foregoing list.

During my short tenure in North Wales, Pennsylvania, circa 1975, I was employed as a manager with Kinney Shoe Corporation in the leased shoe department of the local Woolco store. I recall the first time I ever got on the in-store phone to do a blue light special. My assistant manager said that everyone in the store stopped in their tracks, and after I uttered the first few words about our $2.99 kid’s sneakers, they began laughing out loud.

A couple years ago, my wife, daughter, grandson and I visited the lands of our ancestors; Ireland, N. Ireland and Scotland. It was the trip of a lifetime, and I will never forget the all too short two weeks we spent in the “old country.”

Pt. 2

While we were in Killarney, Ireland my daughter, Kristy and I took a horse and carriage ride through the national park there. As we made our way down a narrow dirt road, I carried on a running conversation with our driver. And given my interest in accents, I asked him,

“Liam, do you ever have any difficulty understanding American accents?”

To which he, in his own unique accent, replied,

“Nay, not so much. I have more trouble understanding the accents of some of my own countrymen!”

A decade ago, some friends of mine attended a wedding in Scotland. Why, they even wore kilts for the celebration. And as they were driving away from the wedding, (presumably still wearing their kilts) they were stopped for a minor infraction by a local policeman.

And as he stepped up to the driver’s window, Colin began to ask Jeff for his driver’s license, name, country of origin, etc. Well, anyone who has any exposure to world accents is aware that the Scottish accent is one of the most beautiful, but difficult to understand of them all.

And after about 23 seconds of what to Jeff was unintelligible words, he exclaimed,

“Speak English!”

To which Colin responded,

“I am!”

It occurs to me that each and every one of us are the products of literally billions of great great great grandparents, and resultingly multiplied dozens of national origins, ethnicities and accents. I mean, I have done the math. We each have two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents, etc. etc. And if you continue this series of multiplication times 33, or about 1500 years, we come up with 1 billion direct ancestors, and for each additional generation, we double that number again.

When I served as an adjunct professor at a nearby university, I taught a class called, “Educational Psychology.” And during the course of the class, I referred to America as the world’s greatest “Melting Pot.” And to be sure, each and every one of us are individual melting pots, made up of the multiplied generations who preceded us; all of whom ‘sported’ their own peculiar, particular accents,… and I think we are richer for it.

by William McDonald, PhD. Copyright pending